He was also a noted literary figure and served as a patron of
both the October Club and the Scriblerus Club. Harley Street is
sometimes said to be named after him, although it was his son Edward
Harley who actually developed the area.

Political
Career

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Coming to
Notice

At the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 Sir
Edward Harley and his son raised a troop of horse in support of the
cause of William III, and took possession
of the city of Worcester on his
behalf. This recommended Robert Harley to the notice of the Boscawen family, and led to
his election, in April 1689, as the parliamentary representative of
Tregony, a borough
under their control. He remained its member for one parliament,
when he was elected by the constituency of New Radnor in 1690, and he continued to
represent it until his elevation to the peerage in 1711.

Northern
Secretary

Harley was an early practitioner of 'spin'; he recognised the
political importance of careful management of the media. In 1703
Harley first made use of Daniel Defoe's talents as a political
writer. This proved so successful that he was later to employ both
Delarivier
Manley and Jonathan Swift to pen pamphlets for him
for use against his many opponents in politics.

During the time of his office, the union with Scotland was brought about.
At the time of his appointment as Secretary of State, Harley had
given no outward sign of dissatisfaction with the Whigs, and it was
mainly through Marlborough's
influence that he was admitted to the ministry.

For some time, so long indeed as the victories of the great
English general cast a glamour over the policy of his friends,
Harley continued to act loyally with his colleagues. But in the
summer of 1707 it became evident to Sidney
Godolphin that some secret influence behind the throne was
shaking the confidence of the Queen in her ministers. The sovereign
had resented the intrusion into the administration of the impetuous
Charles Spencer,
3rd Earl of Sunderland, and had persuaded herself that the
safety of the Church of England depended on the
fortunes of the Tories. These
convictions were strengthened in her mind by the new favourite Abigail Masham (a cousin of the Duchess of Marlborough through her mother,
and of Harley on her father's side), whose coaxing contrasted
favourably in the eyes of the Queen with the haughty manners of her
old friend, the Duchess of Marlborough.

Harley, c. 1710.

Chief
Minister

Both the Duchess and Godolphin were convinced that this change
in the disposition of the queen was due to the influence of Harley
and his relatives; but he was permitted to remain in office. Later,
an ill-paid and poverty-stricken clerk, William Gregg, in Harley's
office, was found to have given the enemy copies of many documents
which should have been kept from the knowledge of all but the most
trusted advisers of the court, and it was found that through the
carelessness of the head of the department the contents of such
papers became the common property of all in his service. The Queen
was informed that Godolphin and Marlborough could no longer serve
with Harley. They did not attend her next council, on 8 February
1708, and when Harley proposed to proceed with the business of the
day the Duke of Somerset
drew attention to their absence. The Queen found herself forced (11
February) to accept the resignations of both Harley and Henry St John, 1st
Viscount Bolingbroke.

Harley left office, but his cousin, who had recently married,
continued in the Queen's service. Harley employed her influence
without scruple, and not in vain. The cost of the protracted war
with France, and the danger to the national church, the chief proof
of which lay in the prosecution of Henry Sacheverell, were the weapons
which he used to influence the masses of the people. Marlborough
himself could not be dispensed with, but his relations were
dismissed from their posts in turn. When the greatest of these,
Lord Godolphin, was ejected from office, five commissioners to the
treasury were appointed (10 August 1710); among them was Harley as
Chancellor of the
Exchequer. It was the aim of the new chancellor to frame an
administration from the moderate members of both parties, and to
adopt with but slight changes the policy of his predecessors; but
his efforts were doomed to disappointment. The Whigs refused to
join an alliance with him, and the Tories, who were successful
beyond their wildest hopes at the polling booths, could not
understand why their leaders did not adopt a policy more favourable
to the interests of their party.

A further attempt was made on his life in November with the Bandbox Plot, in
which a hat-box, armed with loaded pistols to be triggered by a
thread within the package was sent to him; the assassination
attempt was forestalled by the prompt intervention of Jonathan
Swift.

With the sympathy which these attempted assassinations had
evoked, and with the skill which the lord treasurer possessed for
conciliating the calmer members of either political party, he
passed several months in office without any loss of reputation. He
rearranged the nationâ€™s finances, and continued to support her
generals in the field with ample resources for carrying on the
campaign, though his emissaries were in communication with the
French King, and were settling the terms of a peace independently
of England's allies. After many weeks of vacillation and intrigue,
when the negotiations were frequently on the point of being
interrupted, the preliminary peace was signed, and in spite of the
opposition of the Whig majority in the House of Lords, which was met by the
creation of twelve new peers, the much-vexed Treaty of Utrecht was brought to a
conclusion on 31 March 1713.

Whilst Lord Treasurer (Circa 1712) Harley made the infamous
statement "Have we not bought the Scots, and a right to tax
them?"[1] This
provided credence amongst Scots that the Act Of Union had been a
vehicle for England to assert dominance over Scotland.

While these negotiations were under discussion the friendship
between Oxford and St John, who
had become Secretary of
State in September 1710, was fast changing into hatred. The
latter had resented the rise in fortune which the stabs of Guiscard
had secured for his colleague, and when he was raised to the
peerage with the title of Baron St John and Viscount Bolingbroke,
instead of with an earldom, his resentment knew no bounds. The
royal favourite, whose husband had been called to the Upper House
as Baron Masham, deserted her old friend and relation for his more
vivacious rival. The Jacobites found that, although the Lord
Treasurer was profuse in his expressions of good will for their
cause, no steps were taken to ensure its triumph, and they no
longer placed reliance in promises which were repeatedly made and
repeatedly broken. Even Oxford's friends began to complain of his
dilatoriness, and to find some excuse for his apathy in ill-health,
aggravated by excess in the pleasures of the table and by the loss
of his favourite child. The confidence of Queen Anne was gradually
transferred from Oxford to Bolingbroke; on 27 July 1714 the former
surrendered his staff as lord treasurer, and on 1 August the queen
died.

Imprisonment

On the accession of George I of Great Britain,
the defeated minister retired to Herefordshire, but a few months later his
impeachment[2] was
decided upon and he was committed to the Tower of London on 16 July 1715. After
an imprisonment of nearly two years, he was formally acquitted from
the charges of high treason and high crimes and misdemeanours for
which he had been impeached two years earlier and allowed to resume
his place among the peers, but he took little part in public
affairs, and died almost unnoticed in London on 21 May 1724.

Literary
importance

Harley's importance to literature cannot be overstated. As a
patron of the arts, he was notable. As a preservationist, he was
invaluable.

At the same time, Harley used his wealth and power to collect an
unparalleled library. He commissioned the creation of ballad
collections, such as The Bagford Ballads, and he
purchased loose poems from all corners. He preserved Renaissance literature
(particularly poetry), Anglo-Saxon
literature that was then incomprehensible, and a great deal of Middle English
literature. His collection, with that of his son Edward
Harley, was sold to Parliament in 1753 for the British Museum by
the Countess of Oxford and her daughter, the Duchess of Portland;
it is known as the Harley
Collection.[3]

Manning, James A. The Lives of the Speakers of the House of
Commons. London: G. Willis, 1851

Roscoe, E. S., Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, Prime
Minister, 1710-14. London: Methuen, 1902 (Appendices: I.
Swift's character of the Earl of Oxford.--II. Money lent to the
Queen by the Earl of Oxford.--III. Note on the manuscripts and
letters of and relating to Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford)

Stanhope, Lord.
History of England, Comprising the Reign of Queen Anne until
the Peace of Utrecht. London, 1870